Maybe I should have waited a few more weeks to write that article about how the smartphone platform is developing into a mobile computing platform. I said that it could be months before we see any sort of reality but today Qualcomm have demonstrated an Inventec OEM mini-laptop running on a Snapdragon ARM-core processor.

There aren’t any pics available at the moment but the notebook is said, in this article from PC World, to be "small and streamlined." Not surprising because Nvidia also showed their new Tegra platform sitting inside an EEE PC casing today and apparently the complete motherboard was just 45mm x 45mm.

The most interesting thing though are comments related to Windows Mobile 7.

Microsoft Windows Mobile 7, which is made for chips used in mobile phones, will be more laptop friendly than older versions of Windows Mobile, said Luis Pineda, senior vice president at Qualcomm, on the sidelines of a news conference in Taipei.

Windows Mobile 7 could be a key for the mobile phone industry in the future if they hope to take a bite out of the growing market for mini-notebooks such as the Eee PC that have 7-inch to 10-inch screens, weigh less than 1 kilogram and connect wirelessly to the Internet.

I have no problem with a netbook running Windows Mobile 7 as long as the applications are as rich as they are on the desktop. I’m sure many others will be happy too and if the device does the job, for the same price but returns a much better battery life[1] ARM-based devices are going to have a lot of advantages.

Qualcomm are expecting device to be available before the end of the year.

[1] While these ARM-based CPUs run at lower power requirements, the biggest power drains on netbooks are actually screen backlighting, storage and radio power. Advantages for ARM-based devices in 2008 could be significant, offering an estimated double, in-use battery life. Towards the end of 2009 though, Intel is expected to have the Moorestown platform available which will narrow the margin to very small levels.

Another Snapdragon-related report from Stacey at GigaOM who quotes Qualcomm as saying they have 15 device manufacturers lined up for Snapdragon-based devices that should be available in 2008.

That’s a lot. But not if Qualcomms or Stacey’s definition of a ultra mobile PC is different from mine. If we re-name the devices, mobile Internet smartphones and consider the prototypes shown at CES then I can believe it because in the smartphone world, every manufacturer has to play the Internet game in the top quartile of their product ranges. Anything less than a Cortex-based device is risking being under-powered for the heavyweight world of ‘real’ Internet.

I’m excited that the ARM-based devices are moving into the mobile Internet market. It means competition and learning. Take the best of everything in 2008/9 and 2010 is going to bring some absolute gems based on Cortex 9, Mobile-ITX and Moorestown.

In a week where we’ve been bombarded by news (or Pyrotechnics as Richard Brown of VIA, calls it) from the Intel IDF, it’s important to remember the other side of the fence. Over in smartphone, pmp and pocketPC land, things are happening just as quickly. The PR machine isn’t as big but the products could be just as capable.

GigaOm interviewed Qualcomm’s Dr. Sanjay Jha , COO and president of its CDMA technologies division last week and put a few interesting Ultra Mobile related questions his way.

Stacey Higginbbotham asked the following:

When will these [snapdragon-based] devices come out, and how does this compete with Intel’s Atom processors for ultra-mobile PCs?

Sanjay replies: Devices using Snapdragon will come out in the second half of this year, before or after Christmas. And I wouldn’t say we’re competing with Intel because we want to focus on a pocket-sized device that you can carry with you. Intel’s specifications for Atom are focused on a device with a 7-inch to 9-inch display.

I think Sanjay needs to do a little bit more research. 20 manufacturers are licensed (as ARM might say!) to produce MIDs and all should produce devices before Christmas. Nearly all of the devices will fall smack-bang into the pocket-sized market so Qualcomm, you DO have competition.

ARM-based MIDS will come and i’m sure we’ll see them with longer battery life and smaller designs than with Atom but will they be powerful enough to handle the a full browser and all the media that a user can throw at them?

GigaOm interview.

Via ElectronRun

Qualcomm are showing off a couple of mobile platforms at CES.  They aren’t UMPCs or even x86 devices but they’re certainly Mobile Internet targeted. On the lower image, the platform known as ‘Ancorage’ (Also shown above next to an iPhone) is running Windows Mobile.

Both this demonstrator and the ‘Fairbanks’ variant are running the ‘snapdragon’ platform which I wrote about recently. Its a Ghz-capable platform utilising the scorpion, Cortex A8 ARM architechture. HTC and Samsung have already shown interest in this and I personally think its going to be going head-to-head with Intel’s Menlow. Take a look at some MIDs that have been shown at CES. The target markets are exactly the same.

Gigabyte MID on Menlow platform.

Qualcomm are just showing these off as demonstrators of their mobile platform and it looks like they’re made by Inventec but the focus is clear – Mobile Internet!

Source: Geek.com. Thanks for the tip Stfu!

I really do hate using question marks at the end of titles. Its a sign of doubt and that’s not what a blogger should be presenting to the readers. However….this one really is a question mark and worth discussing.

As usual, its a two-liner in an article about more general ‘computing’ subjects. This time its from Forbes who have just run an article on Michael Dell’s return to Dell. Credit also to Gizmodo who have picked up on it in their blog.

Dell and Quanta are rumored to be cooking up a smart phone together, the first real production from Ron Garriques and company. It would likely include video, an MP3 player and Internet access and be unleashed on the world early next year. Officially, there’s no comment on this product.

Internet, video, audio. All sounds good. But then there’s the ‘smart phone’ part.

When you say ‘smart phone’, ‘video’, ‘mp3’ and ‘Internet’ you’re usually saying ‘3 inch screen with style and pocketability’ and not only is that a tough market to succeed in now but if you want to talk about real Internet and advanced video for 2008 customers, you have to do some seriously advanced hardware and software engineering. The only way to get the right screen and thumboard size is to drop the keyboard behind the screen via a slider (N810 – I love that design!) or clamshell (Psion 5 – I love that design!), or have it as a touchscreen element as Apple have done. Then, you have to tackle the problem of the processor requirement by putting in a fast processor and/or developing extremely efficient code. Add an HSDPA modem, some storage, wifi, BT and the now obligatory GPS (my Wife is seriously getting into her HTC Trinity’s GPS) you have a big battery life, size and heat issue that really, no-one has solved yet. The N810 and iPhone are very close but they lack the final 3G component, some more software and that little bit of extra speed that is needed to make them ready for a 2008 customer.

Either Dell are looking at a new platform (Snapdragon, Menlow, Mobile-ITX?) some very specialist code (Android?) or they’ve basically thrown a few buzzwords together to get suckers like me to spread the word. I fear the later!

Almost a year ago, we heard about new Marvel ‘Monahans’ processors that were capable of Ghz+ speeds. It turned out that the Ghz figures where only test speeds but even so, the 800Mhz of the Monahans PXA 320 was pretty impressive. A version of the chip is going to appear in the Ipaq 214 at 624 Mhz (capable of 30fpx H264 at VGA res apparently…very tasty!) and I’m going to be keeping an eye on that PocketPC very closely. Especially is Opera Mobile 9 launches soon.

Today we’re hearing about another ARM-based solution from Qualcomm. Its the Snapdragon mobile device platform which includes the Scorpion Cortex-A8 processor *1 (references to this processor go way back to 2006 so its nothing new) that can scale to 1Ghz. Qualcomm call it the worlds fastest mobile processor.

• XGA display support with LCDC
• Up to 12.0 megapixel camera
• WVGA encode/decode
• Supports Launchpadâ„¢ audio and video solutions including: Qcameraâ„¢, Qtvâ„¢, Qvideophoneâ„¢, Qcamcorderâ„¢
• Digital audio support for MP3, aacPlusâ„¢ and Enhanced aacPlus
• Ubiquitous Connectivity. Support for all mobile broadband standards and many technologies complementary to WWAN finally delivers on the promise of seamless always-on connectivity.
• Universal Modem supporting all 2G and 3G mobile broadband standards (CDMA2000 1xEV-DO, Revisions B, A and 0; HSPA, WCDMA, GSM / GPRS / EDGE)
• Support for IEEE 802.11 (WLAN) and VoIP with VCC capabilities
• Broadcast technologies: MediaFLOâ„¢, SDMB, ISDB-T,TDMB, and DVB-H with QUALCOMM’s UBMâ„¢ universal broadcast modem
• Support for Bluetooth® 2.0 + EDR solution for personal wireless connectivity

According to the press release and WindowsForDevices, Samsung and HTC are adopting this platform for some of their future products. For some I can’t get the word ‘Android’ out of my head!

Press release. Thanks to JKK and Kenneth for the tips.

*1. Some info on Scorpion, its processing power and architechture here.